Chapter 216: Wen Zixi

Bonus Scene:

Ever since Earth merged with the game and regained its former prosperity, XiaoFatty had been unwilling to leave.

To him, this place was still a game, and the only way he knew how to leave was by dying.

The Advanced Systems, having had their energy drained, started developing minor glitches. All of them, except for the Wish System, were recalled for diagnostics.

The Food System left, vowing that even in death, it would never bind to an interstellar person. For a food lover, a life without good food was worse than death. So, no matter how much the interstellar people urged it, it refused to return.

Not only did it refuse to go back, but it got so annoyed by their nagging that it handed over all its built-in communication devices to Huaxia.

Among them, the most valuable for research was the Light Brain.

As a person of interest under close observation, there weren’t many places XiaoFatty could go. He was restricted to Huaxia Base and the secret base, and he wasn’t allowed access to core areas.

But he didn’t care. As long as there was food, he could stay in his room until he died.

He often played games with Shi Zhile in his free time. After losing a match once due to network lag, he joined the network infrastructure renovation project in a fit of pique.

After that, the word “lag” disappeared from every nook and cranny on the planet.

Shi Zhile’s two spaces grew even larger. She requested two harvesters and two seeders, but before she could even learn how to use them, Mr. Wen confiscated them.

He argued that the Planting Space had pristine air and soil, and these machines couldn’t be allowed in to pollute the environment. All planting and harvesting had to be done by hand.

Thus, the space became the primary worksite for Elder Wen’s students.

The Breeding Space was even bigger, housing all sorts of endangered species that were tended to daily by dedicated experts.

The secret base expanded as well.

Ever since the main system announced that in 75 years, the dungeons bound to the Teleportation Gate would be added to a corner of Earth, the base players… no! All of Huaxia was ecstatic.

This was a monumental event that would expand their territory, a glorious achievement that would be celebrated for millennia.

And so, Huaxia people flocked to Stone Island on their own accord, hoping for the chance to enter the secret base and increase its population.

To accommodate this, the nation decided to set aside a plot of land in the secret base specifically for Huaxia people to come and make a token visit.

「One year, two years, three years…」

The people Shi Zhile was waiting for still hadn’t returned.

In order to find Shi Zhiyi and the others, she accepted the main system’s proposal and became a System herself. Her job was to clean up the various messes left behind by the Advanced Systems and their hosts.

She possessed the power and all the functions of a System and could transport hosts across three thousand worlds.

However, unlike a real System, she had fixed work hours and could choose whether or not to accept missions.

All the energy she gained from her missions was used for Earth’s energy maintenance.

And her first wish every single day was, “May Shi Zhiyi, Jiang Jing, Tang Yan, Jiang Yu, and Chuyi return safely.”

For three years, one thousand and ninety-five days, her wish never changed.

「And in the fourth year.」

Shi Zhiyi returned!

「In the fifth year, Jiang Jing and Jiang Yu returned!」

「In the sixth year, Tang Yan returned!」

As for Chuyi…

He returned too, but the unreliable system messed up and sent him to interstellar space again.

Afterward, since he still had his inventory, he relentlessly fleeced the interstellar community for all it was worth.

In the tenth year, he came back piloting a spaceship. And he didn’t just bring himself back; he brought spaceships, combat mechs, war chariots, and flying robots with him.

Because Earth was protected by the Energy Shield, the interstellar people couldn’t find its exact location. All they could do was send messages via their Light Brains every day to curse out Chuyi, and their language was exceptionally foul.

Chuyi would listen to it all with a grin. Once they had cursed themselves tired, he would just say, “Bounces back.”

With these reference models, the nation’s development accelerated. A few years later, Huaxia’s first successful spaceship was launched, followed closely by its first mechs.

At the kindergarten gate, a little girl with pigtails came skipping out, holding her teacher’s hand.

Just as Shi Zhile took her chubby little hand, the teacher began to speak.

“Wen Zixi’s aunt, Wen Zixi made another classmate cry at kindergarten today. It happened like this: today was the first day of school, and the other children had just been comforted, when she came out with, ‘Your mommies and daddies don’t want you anymore!’ and successfully made the entire class cry. She said it a total of six times today, and the entire class cried six times. They cried so much they didn’t even eat their lunch. And when she saw them crying, she went and took away all the other children’s little cookies. After that, the children cried even louder.”

Shi Zhile looked down at Wen Zixi, and Wen Zixi looked up at Shi Zhile. For a moment, they were both speechless.

The teacher was about to say more, but Wen Zixi spoke up.

Her voice was sweet and childish.

“Teacher, please wait a moment. My aunt is off today. My great-grandpa is teaching a class in the Planting Space, and my grandpa is in the Breeding Space today. You should have my aunt call my great-grandpa and grandpa out. It’s only appropriate to talk to three guardians at once. But, if you talk to my aunt, my great-grandpa, and my grandpa, then you can’t tell my mom.”

Shi Zhile: “…”

The Teacher: “…”

THE END